Moroccan spends 18 months in jail in judiciary error

The appeal court of Montpellier (southern France) has ordered the release of El Mostafa Berrfai, who spent 18 months in jail, mistakingly instead of an Algerian.

French paper "le Midi Libre" explained that the Moroccan spent 12 of these 18 moths in a Spanish jail. El Mostafa, who was legally established in Spain, was arrested by Spanish authorities then extradited to France after this latter issued an international warrant against an Algerian called Mohamed Berrafai, involved in a murder case dating back to 1991.

Eleven years after the murder, the Spanish police arrested the 39-year old Moroccan. Although he showed his identity cards which proved that his name is not identical with that of the murderer and that he is Moroccan, while the murderer is Algerian, the only response to his appeals was one year in jail before being transferred to Perpignan (southern France) in December 2003.

According to "le Midi Libre," the court of appeal of Montpellier finally convoked last week the brother of the wanted murderer to confront El Mostapha.

"I don't know this man," he said. "As for my brother," he went on, "he died in 1993 in Morocco."

El Mostapha's lawyer, Jean Rober Phung, intends to sue the ministry of justice for the dysfunction of the judiciary body.

"I spent 18 months in jail for nothing," deplored El Mostapha.

"I lost my job, my car (É) and my fiancee who left me because she thought I was a criminal. Only my parents believed in my innocence," he said.

"Le Midi Libre" concluded by saying that El Mostapfa has returned to Aliente where he was living before this "absurd arrest," that constitutes one of the "gloomiest cases" in the history of the French justice.